Freedom may come easily for Lindsay Lohan, but it doesn't come cheap for the rest of us. As reported earlier today, the actress was recently put in jail for four hours as part of her 30 day sentence for violating her probation. Of course, she's free once again and will remain that way as long as she adheres to Judge Stephanie Sautner's strict probation regulations (and even if she doesn't, she probably won't go to jail anyway). But this isn't the first time Lindsay's been in court due to legal issues, and it could be costing the California taxpayers quite a bit of money. In fact, experts told Fox News that Lindsay may have cost taxpayers over $250,000 per hour for the jail time she served last night.

Ever since her drunk driving arrest in 2007, the Hollywood starlet has made more than 20 court appearances stemming from additional arrests, probation violations, failed drug and alcohol screenings, and neglecting to follow court orders -- which adds up to a lot of expenses for the state. According to former federal prosecutor Michael Wildes, “From logistics to the transcript reporters to the clerks, it is exorbitantly expensive to have a court appearance... It costs tens of thousands of dollars per court appearance for all the clerks, the security, and those court reporters who get paid by the page, not to mention all the collateral support for something like this."

Attorney Vikki Ziegler shares similar concerns on the matter, stating, “It has likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars. This has been a four year ordeal that taxpayers in California must foot. That includes salaries for judges, prosecutors, court officers, court reporters, clerks, [and] other law enforcement professionals, who must all be paid, to have touched the Lohan case directly or indirectly in one shape or another.”

So basically it costs a lot of money for Lindsay to sit in front of a judge, and California residents have been paying for it. At least the reason for our economic troubles finally has a face.